This invention relates to a unit type curtain wall assembly having an array of curtain wall units connected to one another at top and bottom and to left and right, with and without facilities for the temperature control of the rooms enclosed thereby, and more particularly to improved means for interconnecting every two vertically adjoining curtain wall units in such a unit type curtain wall assembly.
In constructing curtain wall assemblies of the unit type under consideration, the usual practice has been to couple together the curtain wall units at every point where the corners of four neighboring units meet, for attachment to a floor system of a building. The joints or seams of the curtain wall units have simply been filled with a backup material and caulked. These conventional connections between curtain wall units provide only air- and water-tight joints therebetween; they are not intended to bear the curtain wall units against relative displacement out of the vertical plane in which they normally lie. In case of the conventional unit type curtain wall, respective curtain wall units positioned at top and bottom and to left and right in a crossed portion of the unit type curtain wall assembly are borne by a fastener portion, one side of which is formed in a fixed type and the other side of which is allowed to oscillate. Accordingly, it is another drawback of the conventional unit type curtain wall assembly to make the construction and the connection of the fastener portion unavoidably complex. Further, by reason of the complex construction of the fastener portion, it becomes difficult to assemble and mount the curtain wall units in the site of building construction.
A recent breakthrough in the art of unit type curtain wall is those with a temperature control system for the room enclosed thereby. Japanese Patent Application No. 57-133764, filed by the same applicant as in the present application, discloses an example of unit type curtain wall assembly capable of room temperature control. According to this assembly disclosed in the separate application, conditioned air is supplied through passageways in the vertical and horizontal frame members of the curtain wall units, for delivery into the rooms through vents in one of the horizontal frame members of each unit.
This unit type curtain wall assembly also has a problem with regard to the vertical connection between the curtain wall units. The air passageways in the vertical frame members of vertically adjoining curtain wall units must intercommunicate for uninterrupted flow of the conditioned air therethrough. Thus, unless the vertical frame members of the adjacent curtain wall units are positively held against relative displacement out of alignment, their joints are suscepticle to rupture, with consequent leakage of air, when the unit type curtain wall assembly is loaded in directions at angles to its plane. A rigid interconnection of the aligned vertical frame members is objectionable, however, because then the individual curtain wall units would not be relatively displaceable in their own plane, inviting ready destruction of the unit type curtain wall assembly as in the event of an earthquake.